Textile conservation sheds light on stories of past

Published 10:04 am, Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Nora Steakley can't remember the first time she saw her grandmother's quilt.

The blanket scraped together from navy and dust-colored work clothes in the 1880s was something that always was just there, "like part of the furniture."

As a new bride, she said, her grandmother had created it after traveling for a year in a covered wagon and then living in a tent and dugout before the young couple's homestead was finally established in Stanton.

The quilt never was meant to be anything extravagant. It was crafted out of what was available at the time and used as a cover for one of the children. Her grandmother, she said, would go on to complete dozens of other quilts and squares that each were passed on to her children and grandchildren. That first quilt, however, always maintained a visual presence in her grandparent's home, a sign of comfort from the past and a reminder to the next generations of where they'd come from.

After her grandmother died, though, the quilt and piles of her other handiwork were placed in a wooden trunk and shuffled into storage where since 1978 they've sat unnoticed and untouched.

Poking her finger Friday toward a slight tear in the fabric that now exists, Steakley said she's hoping to change that.

As one of a handful of students at a textile conservation workshop this weekend at the CAF Airpower Museum, Steakley said she was learning precisely how to preserve the fabrics so they'll remain intact to pass on both as family heirlooms and as remnants of the stories her ancestors no longer are here to tell.

"She was very talented," Steakley said.

Although not a widespread art, said conservator Mary Frederickson, who led the workshop Friday and Saturday, preserving textiles is important in depicting man's everyday life throughout the course of history.

Unfortunately, she said, in the past most of what's been properly stored are samples of the era's high fashions, which are exquisite to look at, but do little to shed light on how most people lived.

"The common everyday clothing was not saved and how hard the everyday person had to work to have clothes," Frederickson said.

Since the 1980s she's been working to spread her own love of history, sharing with students and citizens like those present in Midland this weekend, as well as with museums throughout the world, about how to correctly conserve textile artifacts.

After showing the students how to document their textiles through microscopic photos Friday afternoon, Frederickson moved toward Steakley's quilt to point out an example of what such imagery can reveal.

Beneath the sewn fabrics, she said, they discovered a cheese cloth layered atop the cotton that would have been placed there to keep the stuffing in place.

"It's just fantastic," Frederickson said. "It tells a whole lot about our history in this area."

Most clothing articles, quilts and other textiles that were tattered from improper storage in the past, she said, were not harmed on purpose.

Instead, Frederickson said, even museums simply didn't know what to do with the items and sometimes would fold them or put them in boxes, which are two of the worst things one can do.

Moving toward the back of the Airpower Museum's conservation lab Frederickson gestured toward a burgundy vest and matching shorts that had been folded and kept in a small shoe box-like container for the past several years.

Because textiles are so porous, she said, they absorb everything which includes the materials cardboard is made from -- mostly trash. Folding, she said, causes the materials to break down.

To maintain items, she said, they should always remain flat, have properly crafted stuffing placed in the arms and legs to keep their shape and be put in containers made of cellulose pulp, which doesn't contain anything that will be absorbed.

Whether a buffered or non-buffered box should be used, she said, is dependent on the makeup of the textile and the pH balance of each also should be tested before being used.

Preparing to administer such a test Friday, Texas Tech Museum Science graduate student Sarah Collins said she was learning several conservation techniques she'd not heard before.

As a staff member of a museum, Collins said she enjoys getting to do new things each day and thought Frederickson's perspectives on how to store historic fabrics would be helpful to her work in the future.

"She's very thorough, it's all really good stuff," she said. "It's important to know."

Martha Dillard, who brought in the burgundy shorts, vest and hat, said she's been intrigued by the clothing since she was younger and always had wanted to learn how to preserve it so she could pass it on.

The small articles belonged to her grandfather when he was around 4-years-old and would clog and dance jigs while his father performed music.

"Vodie Plattor, that's what they always called him," she said.

Seeing others discover the techniques she finds such joy in, Frederickson said, is part of what makes it fun.

When she started, having earned a graduate degree from one of the few conservation and restoration schools in the world, she said, there were few doing such work in Texas.

Finding conservators in West Texas still is rare, she said, but appreciation for the art is continuing to grow.

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Kathleen Thurber can be reached at kthurber@mrt.com.

The next conservation workshop, "Historical Leather" will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 23. Call 432-567-3010 or 432-425-1265 for more information.